Customers Feel Value

Scott Gillum and I were having one of our usual conversations, the marketing vs. sales conversation. As usual, I thought, Scott is a wickedly smart marketing professional. Somehow those words seem like an oxymoron, but in his case it’s pure truth.

During our conversation, Scott said something that stopped me for a few minutes, “Customers feel value.”

I don’t know it Scott intended it that way, but I felt it at the moment he said it.

And I think the ability for the customers to feel value is probably the ultimate manifestation of value creation.

Think to situations where you have been involved in a major B2B purchase. Probably, the differences in products or solutions was minimal. Any one would have achieve your goals.

Then you reflect on your experience with the sales people. In reality they probably weren’t that different. They did similar things, if they were good, they focused on you and what you were trying to achieve. They may have articulated a value proposition. They may have presented a quantified business case. They each may have brought you insights, they may have helped you think about your business differently.

They were creating value. They were doing the things they should do as great sales professionals.

But the person who stood out, probably the person you bought from was the person that made you feel value.

There was a connection at an emotional level, you felt the sales person “got you,” understood what you faced, not only empathized, but genuinely cared.

When the customer feels value they feel caring. They know they are important to the sales person–not as a vehicle to a transaction or a commission check. But they are important to the sales person as human beings, as individuals, as people. The sales person cares for them.

Each of us has had a buying experience where we have encountered a sales person that is different, a sales person that cares, and through that caring makes us feel value.